


the distance between us

by itsonlydana



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Denial of Feelings, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Near Death Experiences, Post Season 6, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26565817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsonlydana/pseuds/itsonlydana
Summary: The reader is another member of the BAU and gets shot during a case. When she wakes up in the hospital, she has to face Emily and her feelings towards the woman, who broke her heart when she "died" and came back.(based on a request on my tumblr)
Relationships: Emily Prentiss/Original Female Character(s), Emily Prentiss/Reader
Kudos: 45





	the distance between us

Everything happened in a matter of seconds.  
The plan was simple, foolproof. Morgan and Hotch went first in the apartment, then Prentiss and you would follow them, a task you had practiced thousands of times and yet everything went wrong. After finding the apartment empty, the other three had bent over the clothes, books and food left behind on the table and had begun to discuss with Garcia over the phone possible places to which your unsub might have fled.  
Something was wrong.

The man must have found out somehow that the FBI was on their way to him and most likely ran away. You put away your gun and aim for the door of the neighboring apartment right across the street. First, because someone must have seen him, and second because you took every chance to get away from a special someone. Someone you actually liked very much, but who had done something unforgivable. But there wasn't time for that.

In retrospect, it was a stupid idea to put the gun away, a beginner's mistake that shouldn't happen to someone like you. Because what had to happen happened.

The door opened and you found yourself face to face with the unsub, a determined look in his face. 

_'He will try to take as many as possible with to his death if we don't catch him in time and even then he won't go without violence´ _Well, fuck.__

__Even before you could reach for your gun, you felt yourself hitting the carpet floor, then a loud shot sounds. Or was it the other way around? At first, it feels like everything around you is happening in slow motion. From the ground you see the unsub tilting backward; one, two, three shots, all three dull as if you had cotton in your ears. You're trying to straighten up, but your body isn't responding. Someone drops on the floor next to you, a piece of cloth that smells suspiciously of Prentiss presses on a spot next to your head and yet you feel nothing of it.  
You can hear a woman yelling at you to stay awake, to keep your eyes open and follow the voice. Concentrating, you focus on the sweet voice, the smell of vanilla in your nose, but ice-cold hands wiggle up your wrist, clinging, pulling yourself further and further into the darkness until you give in with a sigh and then everything is quiet, dark, cold._ _

__Gentle lights dance around you, invite you to follow them. Curiously, you reach for one right in front of your nose and grasp through it. A well-known scent rises, envelops you until it is the only thing you can perceive.  
What does it remind you of?  
Raven-black hair, it flies in the wind, no, not in the wind. You dance, swirl around, faster and faster. You feel two hands on your hips and look up, right in big dark eyes. You almost lose yourself in the depths of them as you dance. Just the two of you, faster and faster.  
Suddenly you feel something cool running down your cheek. You try to wipe it away, but there's nothing there. There is nothing anymore. _ _

__Nothing?  
A single fine, barely noticeable note of vanilla._ _

__A desire to fight awakens in you and you hold on to the smell until you have enough strength to open your eyes._ _

__You clear your throat, your mouth is unpleasantly dry. No one’s responding. It wasn’t that bad to wake up in the hospital, but you at least expected to be in nice company. Slightly pissed, you bend your arms in front of the chest, or try it because as soon as you lift your left arm, a tear-chasing pain passes through you.  
“Fuck!” _ _

__The room door is torn open and three familiar faces storm into it. It was a pleasant fuss over of Penelope, Spencer and Derek, each of them wanted to make you as comfortable as possible by giving you jello, offering you another pillow, it was too sweet._ _

__"Did we catch the bad guy?" you ask after a while, the mouth full of red jello. Spencer, who sat across from you on the blanket and spooned in his own jello, stopped and looked up at Derek, then at Penelope; both said nothing. "Don't you remember? After you got shot, Emily shot him."  
You're staring at the red mass in your cup. Memories come up of you lying on the carpet, Emily next to you on the floor. Quickly you push them away. "Nope, all I know is how Derek kicked in the door. Eventually, you'll find one that won't give in."  
That was enough, Penelope made fun of the thought that Derek was running against a door while he defended himself with his hands and feet. Only Spencer gave you a questioning look that you shrugged off with your shoulders. What should you tell him? Yes, I remember it but I´m too busy being pissed off with Emily to talk about it? Sure, he would understand. _ _

__Thankfully the door opened again, well not quite thankfully. You concentrated hard to just look at Hotch and not the woman next to him. Stern as ever he stared at your shoulder bandage then at you. “I'm glad you're okay now. How’s the shoulder?”  
“Well, I won´t throw things for a while but that’s okay, I'm kinda bad at throwing anyway.” No one laughed or even grinned. What a tough crowd, you thought. _ _

__“Emily will drive you home later, (y/n).” “But Hotch!”, you whined but the older one either didn´t noticed or more likely, he didn´t care. “And you won´t come back until at least three doctors tell you you´re fit to work again, and no, Spencer doesn´t count. Morgan, Reid and Garcia will come with me back to the BAU.”  
It was childish, but after your friends said goodbye to you, Derek patterned your head one last time, and Spencer handed you his last jello, you couldn't help but poke your tongue out at Hotch behind his back. _ _

__Now it was all the more noticeable how uncomfortable Emily felt. You watched her from the corner of your eye as she folded her hands together in front of her, her presence as tiny as never before. The feelings in you were bubbling. You could remember exactly a similar situation a year ago._ _

__“So, how are you?”, she asked and even though you tried to suppress your feelings, you couldn´t hold back a sarcastic laugh: “I mean, I´m not dead like you were.”  
Emily obviously had a hard time staying calm, but the trembling of her hands betrayed her. She looked down at the floor, her dark hair covering her facial expression. However, it couldn't be a positive one, her chest lifted and lowered irregularly and she began to play on her fingernails, a habit that more than reflected her anxiety. “Don't say that.”, her voice trembled and even if you were angry, there were still those feelings that wanted to hold her.  
“Why not? It's true, isn't it? You did that and then came back like nothing happened!” Tears were welling up in your eyes and when you tried to lift your arm to wipe them away, the pain was stronger than before, leading you to cry out. Immediately Emily takes a step towards you, but you pull up your other hand and shift away on the bed.  
"Don't come any closer!" _ _

__You knew as soon as she was too close your walls would collapse. If you didn't know any better, you'd get pity for Emily, who stopped petrified, clenched her trembling hands to fists. If you didn't know better, you'd think the pain in her eyes was real. But that couldn't be, she was the one who ran away, she has to live with the consequences.  
You see how she takes a deep breath and ignores your pleas to get away. “(y/n), please. Can we talk? I can't do this anymore.” “You can't do this anymore?”, you interrupt her scoffing “Newsflash Emily, it was always up to you to take your chance, but you didn't. Instead you just ignored it.”  
Again she came closer, but the distance between you two was never bigger.  
Your hands gripped the sheet tight as the walls began to crack.  
“I never wanted to ignore it, (y/n)! What was I supposed to do? Everything had changed, you had changed!”  
“How couldn't I, Emily? Tell me how, after I told you that I fell in love with you, you didn't answer, then went into hiding for months, came back as if nothing had happened and still left me hanging!” you were yelling now. It hurted so much, you were still trying so hard not to cry. “You had contact with JJ, why didn't you contact me?”  
The last part was like a wrecking ball crashing down the last bit of wall between you, your feelings and Emily, who finally sat beside you on the small bed and loosened your grip on the sheets, taking your hands into hers. “Because I wasn't sure if you still felt the same. The night after the dance I didn't want your feelings to be true, I thought it couldn't be true that you loved me back. My life is such a much, how could you possibly love me? And then Paris happened and my biggest fear came true after I came back; I understood why you hated me and was too scared to face it.”  
For a moment you just stared at her and tried to understand the meaning behind her words. “You love me back? You? Me?” As soon as you saw her nodding you grabbed her shirt and pulled her towards you, your lips crashing against hers.  
Oh god, how perfectly you two fitted and please, how could anyone kiss this good?  
The kiss was everything you ever wished for and more. She not only smelled like vanilla, but tasted like it as well and you kissed her again and again, trying to capture as much of it as possible. It was like your dance all over again, only you two, wrapped up in one another, inseparable._ _

**Author's Note:**

> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/itsonlydana  
> ⭑requests are always open!


End file.
